Grant County Animal Outreach still busy

MOSES LAKE — April 3 was a good day for Lamb Chop.

Lamb Chop is part husky and, as Grant County Animal Outreach coordinator Kelsie Einspahn said, part something else. He has the husky head and long gray fur, but not the stocky husky body. “You don’t see them lanky like that. Normally they’re very fluffy,” Einspahn said. His looks may have contributed to his lengthy residence at GCAO – he’d been there since Feb. 13.

But April 3 was Lamb Chop’s day. Jacob Mitchell wanted a dog, and had been looking at options on pet-adoption websites. In the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, the GCAO shelter technically is open weekdays by appointment only, but the gate was open in anticipation of a volunteer coming to pick up a foster dog. So Lamb Chop got a chance to meet a prospective owner, and in the end he got a new home.

The prospective foster dog had just had puppies, so young their eyes were still closed. Einspahn called her the “angry mom.”

“She doesn’t let us pet her or anything. She just growls. She’s got nine babies,” she said.

And Mom certainly didn’t like it when she was disturbed, barking fiercely when shelter workers transferred her puppies to the carrier. Her foster caregiver drove from Mattawa to pick up the dogs.

Life, adoption and fostering go on at the animal shelter, in spite of the challenges posed by the outbreak.

There have been some changes. The animal shelter is open to the public from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturdays only. “We do try and make appointments during the week, even though we’re closed,” Einspahn said, for people who are interested in an animal. Appointments can be scheduled between noon and 3:30 p.m. weekdays.

Some of the challenges are common to everybody – the shelter is having trouble getting disposable gloves and floor-cleaning solution. Some are unique to the shelter. “The canned food donations have slowed down since we’ve been closed,” Einspahn said. Canned dog food is the primary need.

“We run out of wood pellets pretty quickly,” Einspahn said. The pellets are used in place of cat litter to reduce dust. Less dust reduces the chance of upper respiratory infections among the shelter inhabitants.

The Spokane veterinary clinic that was doing most of GCAO’s spaying and neutering services was forced to close temporarily. “Luckily, WSU (the Washington State University veterinary clinic) had fixed most of our animals before they were forced to shut down,” she said. Local vets are doing some of the spaying and neutering in the meantime.

While the shelter is still busy, it’s not overwhelmed. “It’s harder to get certain resources, like vet appointments or donations, on the spur of the moment. In terms of what’s coming in, it seems to be a bit more reasonable. Which helps match the reduced outgo,” Einspahn said.

The number of animals being left at the shelter has remained relatively steady. “Thank God it’s slowed down, because it’s been impossible to get rescues out over the mountains,” she said.

Animal formula will be needed as the weather gets better. “We go through that pretty quickly when we start getting the orphans,” she said. “The warmer it gets, the more it happens, unfortunately.”

Pictures of, and information about, animals available for adoption from GCAO can be found on a number of animal-adoption websites, such as Adopt a Pet, Petfinder and Petango, Einspahn said. People can set up appointments by contacting GCAO by phone at 509-762-9616 or by email using the form on the website, www.grantcountyanimaloutreach.com.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.